SALT LAKE CITY — Snow from Thursday's storm blanketed Utah's mountains and rain soaked a lot of neighborhoods.

Snow Survey Hydrologist Randy Julander says the state needs the moisture. "The past two weeks have been absolutely horrendous in terms of our water supply," he said.

In that time, Utah's mountains lost 30 to 60 percent of the snowpack. Statewide, the snowpack only ranges from 0 to 45 percent, with the Bear River Basin at the top of that scale.

"That is really astronomically bad news in terms of our run-off," Julander said.

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Poor snowpack means no major spring flooding

Dismal snowpack throughout Utah and the rest of the country means for the first time in four years, there's not a high risk of major or record-setting spring flooding.

The run-off is soaking into the soil and disappearing in the wind. Utah's high mountains will get about two feet or more from this storm cycle. But, that's not enough to replenish the snowpack.

"We're polar opposites of what we were last year," Julander said.

On the plus side, reservoirs across the state are about 90 percent full. So, even though most of them won't get much of a recharge this spring, community water storage should be OK.

"It's those people who are on direct stream flow, their summer is going to be long, hot and dry," Julander said.

Run-off is starting early, with low volumes, and will likely end six weeks early in mid-May.

"We've melted half of our snowpack. We don't have any stream flow into our reservoirs. A storm like this will postpone our irrigation season just a little bit," Julander said.

That's the real benefit of a wet spring after a dry winter. It enables residents, including farmers and ranchers, to postpone irrigation and watering and leave as much of that precious water in the reservoirs as possible.

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